Steve Collins in need of yet another lawyer

Two and a half months after being appointed, a high-profile San Francisco-based attorney has withdrawn from the case of a former Monterey County water board member charged with felony conflict of interest and grand theft.

Attorney Michael Burt told Judge Pamela Butler on Friday he would not be ready to go to trial in defense of Steve Collins by the end of the year because of the demands of federal death penalty cases he is involved in.

Butler, who reiterated her earlier statement the case should go to trial before year's end, released Burt from the case and ordered county Alternate Defender Frank Dice to return next week with a new attorney for Collins.

Collins is set to return to court on Wednesday to be assigned another attorney.

Burt, a longtime former San Francisco public defender known for his work on death penalty cases, was appointed to represent Collins in February after attorneys Mike Lawrence and Juliet Peck withdrew from the case. He missed at least two court appearances on Collins' behalf in the past few months, apparently because of his work on federal death penalty cases.

Burt is one of a handful of attorneys who serve as federal death penalty resource counsel, assisting court-appointed defense attorneys with capital cases in federal court.

Dice told the court on Friday that he had at least two attorneys in mind to represent Collins, including one from "out of town."

He said later he was unaware of the court's scheduling plans for the case when his office assumed responsibility for seeking representation for Collins, and dismissed a suggestion that Burt would be reassigned to the case later.

"We'll be back next week and another attorney will appear on Mr. Collins' behalf," he said.

Burt was assigned to the case on behalf of the Alternate Defender's Office after Public Defender Jim Egar declared a conflict in the case, which has drawn in a number of county officials.

Burt worked with Egar on the case of Jesse Crow, the Prunedale man who could have faced the death penalty after being accused of killing his wife. The case never went to trial because Crow committed suicide in county jail in 2010.

Dice previously said Burt was a fine choice to represent Collins because he was willing to accept the usual rate for appointed counsel and handle a complex case.

Collins is facing more than three dozen felony charges, including allegations that he had a financial interest in key agreements at the heart of the failed regional desalination project. He was paid more than $160,000 by the private consulting firm RMC Water and Environment for work he did on the project while he was a public official serving on the county water board.

He is facing dozens of felony grand theft charges for allegedly accepting payment from Castroville-based artichoke grower Ocean Mist for meetings that he never attended or that never occurred.